That passage is not without its difficulties. The beginning seems to mean that Jesus, when he rose from the dead and emerged from the tomb, handed the linen shroud, which he had been wearing in death, to the servant of the high priest and went to meet his brother James. It also seems to imply that James was present at the Last Supper. But although the passage has its obscurities, one thing is clear. Something about Jesus in the last days and hours had fastened on James’ heart, and he had vowed that he would not eat until Jesus had risen again; and so Jesus came to him and gave him the assurance for which he waited. That there was a meeting of James and the risen Christ is certain. What happened at that moment we shall never know. But we do know this, that after it the James who had been hostile and unsympathetic to Jesus became his servant for life and his martyr in death.
James the Martyr of Christ
That James died a martyr’s death is the consistent statement of early tradition. The accounts of the circumstances vary, but the fact that he was martyred remains constant. The Jewish historian Josephus’ account is very brief (Antiquities, 20:9:1):
So Ananus, being that kind of man, and thinking that he had got a good opportunity because Festus was dead and Albinus not yet arrived, holds a judicial council; and he brought before it the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ – James was his name – and some others, and on the charge of violating the law he gave them over to be stoned.
Ananus was a Jewish high priest; Festus and Albinus were procurators of Palestine, holding the same position as Pilate had held. The point of the story is that Ananus took advantage of the interregnum, the period between the death of one procurator and the arrival of his successor, to eliminate James and other leaders of the Christian Church. This, in fact, fits well with the character of Ananus as it is known to us, and would mean that James was martyred in AD 62.
A much longer account is given in the history of Hegesippus. Hegesippus’ history is itself lost, but his account of the death of James has been preserved in full by the Church historian Eusebius, who wrote early in the fourth century (Ecclesiastical History, 2:23). It is lengthy, but it is of such interest that it must be quoted in its entirety.
To the government of the Church in conjunction with the apostles succeeded the Lord’s brother, James, he whom all from the time of the Lord to our own day call the Just, as there were many named James. And he was holy from his mother’s womb; wine and strong drink he drank not, nor did he eat flesh; no razor touched his head, he anointed himself not with oil, and used not the bath. To him alone was it permitted to enter the Holy Place, for neither did he wear wool, but linen clothes. And alone he would enter the Temple, and be found prostrate on his knees beseeching pardon for the people, so that his knees were callous like a camel’s in consequence of his continual kneeling in prayer to God and beseeching pardon for the people. Because of his exceeding righteousness he was called the Just, and Oblias, which is in Greek Bulwark of the People, and Righteousness, as the prophets declare concerning him.
Therefore, certain of the seven sects among the people, already mentioned by me in the Memoirs, asked him: ‘What is the door of Jesus?’ and he said that He was the Saviour – of whom some accepted the faith that Jesus is the Christ. Now the aforesaid sects were not believers either in a Resurrection or in One who should come to render to every man according to his deeds; but as many as believed did so because of James. So, since many of the rulers, too, were believers, there was a tumult of the Jews and scribes and Pharisees, for they said there was danger that all the people would expect Jesus the Christ. Accordingly they said, when they had met together with James: ‘We entreat thee restrain the people since it has gone astray unto Jesus, holding him to be the Christ. We entreat thee to persuade concerning Jesus all those who come to the day of the Passover, for we all listen to thee. For we and all the people testify to thee that thou art just and that thou respectest not persons. So thou, therefore, persuade the people concerning Jesus not to go astray, for all the people and all of us listen to thee. Take thy stand, therefore, on the pinnacle of the Temple, that up there thou mayest be well seen, and thy words audible to all the people. For because of the Passover all the tribes have come together and the gentiles also.’
So the aforesaid scribes and Pharisees set James on the pinnacle of the Temple and called to him: ‘O thou, the Just, to whom we all ought to listen, since the people is going astray after Jesus the crucified, tell us what is the door of Jesus?’ And with a loud voice he answered: ‘Why do you ask me concerning the Son of Man? He sitteth himself in heaven on the right hand of the great Power, and shall come on the clouds of heaven.’ And when many were convinced and gave glory for the witness of James, and said: ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, then again the same scribes and Pharisees said to one another: ‘We were wrong to permit such a testimony to Jesus; but let us go up and cast him [James] down, that through fear they may not believe him.’ And they cried out saying: ‘Ho, Ho! even the Just has gone astray’, and they fulfilled the Scriptures written in Isaiah: ‘Let us away with the Just, because he is troublesome to us; therefore they shall eat the fruits of their doings.’
Accordingly they went up and cast the Just down. And they said to one another: ‘Let us stone James the Just’, and they began to stone him, since he was not killed by the fall, but he turned and knelt down saying: ‘I beseech thee, Lord God Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ And so, as they were stoning him, one of the Priests of the sons of Rechab, the son of Rechabim, mentioned by Jeremiah the prophet, cried out saying: ‘Stop! what are ye doing? The Just prays for you.’ And a certain one of them, one of the fullers, taking the club with which he pounds clothes, brought it down on the head of the Just; and so he suffered martyrdom.
And they buried him there on the spot, near the Temple. A true witness has he become both to Jews and Greeks that Jesus is Christ. And immediately Vespasian besieges them.
The last sentence shows that Hegesippus had a different date for the death of James. Josephus makes it AD 62; but, if this happened just before the siege of Vespasian, the date is perhaps about AD 66.
Much in the story of Hegesippus may well be legendary; but, from it, two things emerge. First, it is again evidence that James died a martyr’s death. Second, it is evidence that, even after James became a Christian, he remained in complete loyalty to the orthodox Jewish law, so loyal that the Jews regarded him as one of themselves. This would fit well with what we have already noted of James’ attitude to Paul when he came to Jerusalem with the collection for the Jerusalem church (Acts 21:18–25).
The Brother of our Lord
There is one other question about the person of James which we must try to solve. In Galatians 1:19, Paul speaks of him as the Lord’s brother. In Matthew 13:55 and in Mark 6:3, he is named among the brothers of Jesus; and in Acts 1:14, although no names are given, the brothers of Jesus are said to be among his followers in the earliest Church. The question of the meaning of brother is one which must be faced, for the Roman Catholic Church in particular attaches a great deal of importance to the answer. Ever since the time of Jerome, there has been continuous argument in the Church on this question. There are three theories of the relationship of these ‘brothers’ to Jesus, and we shall consider them one by one.
The Hieronymian Theory
The Hieronymian Theory takes its name from Jerome, whose name in Greek is Hieronymos. It was he who worked out the theory which declares that the ‘brothers’ of Jesus were in fact his cousins; and this is the belief of the Roman Catholic Church, for which it is an article of faith. It was put forward by Jerome in AD 383, and the best way to grasp his complicated argument is by setting it out in a series of steps.
(1) James the brother of our Lord is included among the apostles. Paul writes: ‘But I did not see any other apostle except James the